High-Resolution Mid-Infrared Molecular Line Survey of the Orion Hot Core

The basic building blocks of life are synthesized in space as part of the natural stellar evolutionary cycle, whereby elements ejected into the interstellar medium by dying stars are incorporated back into the dense clouds, which form the next generation of stars and planets. The formation of stars and planets are fundamental to the evolution of matter in the Universe as complex molecules are created and destroyed during this step. Understanding these processes will allow us to answer What is the relation between the molecules we see in the ISM and the molecular inventory of Earth and the terrestrial planets in the Solar System? Measuring and cataloging the inventory of organic molecules and understanding their evolution requires observations over a broad wavelength range (IR, MIR, FIR, (sub)mm, and radio) to cover all stages of this evolutionary cycle needed to link interstellar material to that delivered to planets. High-resolution molecular line surveys provide chemical inventories for star forming regions and are essential for studying their chemistry, kinematics and physical conditions. Previous high spectral resolution surveys have been limited to radio, sub-mm and FIR wavelengths; however, Mid-infrared observations are the only way to study symmetric molecules that have no dipole moment and thus cannot be detected in the (sub)mm line surveys from ALMA. Past midinfrared missions such as ISO and Spitzer had low to moderate resolving power that were only able to link broad features with particular molecular bands and could not resolve the individual rovibrational transitions. JWST will provide exceptional sensitivity in the MIR, but will also not have sufficient spectral resolution, which can lead to confusion in identifying the contribution from strong to moderate strength molecular species. We present new results from an on-going high resolution (R ~ 60,000) line survey of the Orion hot core between 12.5 - 28.3 m and 7 - 8 m, using the EXES instrument on the SOFIA airborne observatory. SOFIA's higher-resolution and smaller beam compared to ISO allows us to spatially and spectrally isolate the emission towards the hot core. This survey will provide the best infrared measurements (to date) of molecular column densities and physical conditions, providing strong constraints on the current chemical network models for star forming regions. This survey will greatly enhance the inventory of resolved line features in the MIR, making it an invaluable reference to be used by the JWST and ALMA scientific communities

FIR/submm spectroscopy with Herschel: first results from the VNGS and H-ATLAS surveys

The FIR/submm window is one of the least-studied regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, yet this wavelength range is absolutely crucial for understanding the physical processes and properties of the ISM in galaxies. The advent of the Herschel Space Observatory has opened up the entire FIR/submm window for spectroscopic studies. We present the first FIR/submm spectroscopic results on both nearby and distant galaxies obtained in the frame of two Herschel key programs: the Very Nearby Galaxies Survey and the Herschel ATLAS

An Imaging Fabry-Perot System for the Robert Stobie Spectrograph on the Southern African Large Telescope

We present the design of the Fabry-Perot system of the Robert Stobie Spectrograph on the 10-meter class Southern African Large Telescope and its characterization as measured in the laboratory. This system provides spectroscopic imaging at any desired wavelength spanning a bandpass 430 - 860 nm, at four different spectral resolving powers ranging from 300 to 9000. Our laboratory tests revealed a wavelength dependence of the etalon gap and parallelism with a maximum variation between 600 - 720 nm that arises because of the complex structure of the broadband multi-layer dielectric coatings. We also report an unanticipated optical effect of this multi-layer coating structure that produces a significant, and wavelength dependent, change in the apparent shape of the etalon plates. This change is caused by two effects: the physical non-uniformities or thickness variations in the coating layers, and the wavelength dependence of the phase change upon refection that can amplify these non-uniformities. We discuss the impact of these coating effects on the resolving power, finesse, and throughput of the system. This Fabry-Perot system will provide a powerful tool for imaging spectroscopy on one of the world's largest telescopes.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa

Fabry-Perot Absorption Line Spectroscopy of the Galactic Bar. II. Stellar Metallicities

We measure the Ca II 8542 line strength in 3360 stars along three lines-of-sight in the Galactic bar: (l,b) ~ (+/-5.0,-3.5) and Baade's Window, using Fabry-Perot (FP) absorption line spectroscopy. This is the first attempt to show that reliable absorption line strengths can be measured using FP spectroscopy. The Ca II 8542 line is a good indicator of metallicity and its calibration to [Fe/H] is determined for globular cluster red giants in previous investigations. We derive such a calibration for the bulge giants and use it to infer metallicities for our full red clump sample (2488 stars) at all three lines-of-sight. We present the stellar metallicity distributions along the major axis of the bar. We find the mean [Fe/H] = -0.09 +/- 0.04 dex in Baade's Window, and find the distribution in this field to agree well with previous works. We find gradients in the mean metallicity and its dispersion w.r.t Baade's WIndow of -0.45 and -0.20 dex respectively at l = +5.5, and of -0.10 dex and -0.20 dex at l = -5.0. We detect a signature of a possible tidal stream at l = +5.5, in both our velocity and metallicity distributions. Its radial velocity indicates that it is not associated with the Sagittarius stream. We also measure the metallicity of a bulge globular cluster NGC 6522 in our Baade's Window field to be -0.90 +/- 0.10 dex, in agreement with recent measurements of Zoccali et al. (2008). This agreement demonstrates the reliability of our metallicity measurements.Comment: accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal, 15 pages, 12 figure